During wash and rinse cycles, dishwasher appliances generally circulate a fluid through a wash chamber over articles, such as pots, pans, silverware, etc. The fluid can be, e.g., various combinations of water and detergent during the wash cycle, or water (which may include additives) during the rinse cycle. Typically, the fluid is circulated during a given cycle using a pump. Fluid is collected at or near the bottom of the wash chamber and pumped back into the wash chamber through, e.g., nozzles in spray arms and other openings that direct the fluid against the articles to be cleaned or rinsed.
Depending upon the level of soil on the articles, fluids used during wash and rise cycles can become contaminated with soils in the form of debris or particles that are carried with the fluid. In order to protect the pump and recirculate the fluid through the wash chamber, it is beneficial to filter the fluid so that relatively clean fluid is applied to the articles in the wash chamber and soils are removed or reduced from the fluid supplied to the pump.
Accordingly, dishwasher appliances are generally provided with a filter assembly to trap at least certain of the soils carried with the wash fluid. Such filter assemblies generally include a coarse filter and a fine filter in a series flow configuration. For example, during a wash cycle a portion of the recirculated wash fluid progressively flows through filters that have smaller and smaller holes. Additionally, blades may be provided adjacent the filters to generally unclog soil from the filters and guide the soil towards discharge areas. It is generally desirable for these blades to be in close proximity to respective filters to facilitate such cleaning.
While such filter assemblies provide advantages with regard to filtering, improvements could be made with respect to the discharge of soil from the filters. For example, blades of current filter assemblies expel soil radially outward towards and into discharge areas. However, due to their design, these blades cannot lift soil off of the filter screen along a vertical direction
Accordingly, improved filter assemblies are desired. In particular, filter assemblies which provide improved soil discharge would be advantageous.